Success does not happen overnight and there are no hacks and shortcuts to achieve it. You need to be patient and learn to do things faster in a period of time as the magical epiphanies do not come very often. Mostly you need to grind yourself towards success and it does take time. Same happened for Jack Ma, one of the richest man in China. Through persistence and experimentation, he created most record-breaking and successful company, Alibaba.

His e-commerce site for Small to medium-sized businesses took years to build into a massive online whole seller of today. This whole success story is powered by Jack Ma’s motivation and passion and there is a lot to learn about this millionaire.

From the simple advice such as ‘Be Simple, Stay foolish‘, following are few of the interesting facts about Jack ma, that you probably aren’t aware off:

1 – He was never a great student:

With Jack Ma’s success, it is pretty easy to assume that he must be a great student. But that is totally not true as he failed multiple times in school. He failed a key primary school test two times, failed middle school test three times, and failed to succeed in the college entrance exam two times.

2 – Got rejected from Harvard University:

It is not easy for any person to get over even one rejection but Ma got rejected ten times from Harvard University. It made him stronger and he never is shy to admit his rejection.

3 – He wasn’t sure of his future after college:

Ma applied to 30 different jobs after graduating from Hangzhou Normal University and got rejected. While applying for various positions he wasn’t sure what he wanted to become and even applied for the job of a police officer.

4 – He likes Forest Gump:

Ma watched this movie Forest Gump and immediately learned a lesson which he applied in his life. Before coming to New York he was used to watching this movie and particularly in those times when he was frustrated. It is also interesting to know what Jack featured himself in a big screen movie too.

5 – He taught for $12 to $15 a month:

At a university, Ma was chosen to teach 500 students after he graduated from the Hangzhou Teachers University. He used to teach English and earned $12 to 415 a month.

6 – First introduction with the internet:

As an interpreter, Ma worked on an assignment in Seattle in 1995 where he was introduced with the computer. Upon finding no information about beer in China, he decided to launch a website called as China Pages.

Without internet, there would have been no Jack Ma, and no Alibaba or Taobao. Jack Ma

7 – He was kidnapped and threatened:

During his trip in U.S., on behalf of a friend, Jack Ma went to go to Malibu, Calif., in order to collect debt from an American businessman. But he ended locked up in the house of the businessman and was threatened with a handgun. He was brought to Las Vegas after a few days when he was due to meet with a group of Chinese businessmen. He did not have any money at this time and won $600 on slot machines, bought a plane ticket to Seattle and never returned to the scene.

8 – He announced Alibaba in a videotape:

Ma raised $60,000 from 18 friends to launch a small platform that could bring China on the internet. It was a platform meant for small and medium-sized businesses. He brought is in front of the public through a videotaped meeting that took place in his small apartment in Hangzhou.

When we have money, we start making mistakes. Jack Ma

9 – Record for raising money in IPO:

Alibaba went public in 2014 and broke IPO records for raising $25 billion in the history.

10 – Ma never wanted Alibaba to be public:

Ma admitted that he never wanted the platform to go public and if ever given a chance of another life, he will keep Alibaba private. The reason for this is that Ma faced a lot of scrutiny from investors, regulators, as well as on media for playing on a bigger stage.

My job is to help more people have jobs. Jack Ma

11 – Recorded a song:

Jack ma is a very talented man and is taking on the label of recording artists too on his Weibo account, Ma shared a link in November that he shared with a famous Chinese singer, Faye-Wong.

Also See: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Jack Ma Agree: You Need This 1 Rare Skill to Be Successful in Life